COBRE Mentored Research

Modeling of Immune Responses in Infectious Diseases

Ruy Ribiero, PhD
Theoretical Biology and Biophysics Group, Theoretical Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory

There have been many recent developments of laboratory techniques that allow the quantification of immune responses against infections. In turn, the availability of these new quantitative data makes possible and indeed necessitates the development of new theoretical quantitative models to help interpret them. In this proposal, we plan to develop models of immune responses against viral infections. We will specifically use two model systems, hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. Both these viruses infect liver cells and may lead to chronic infection and serious liver disease which is mostly thought to be immune mediated. Conversely, the initial immune response is crucial in determining the outcome of infection – eradication or chronic infection. However, the dynamics and quality of the early immune response are different in these viruses. These models will be informed by the new data available and will be used to help interpret the data and potentially to plan new experiments. Comparative modeling of the immune responses against viruses with similar but not identical pathologies for which there is a growing amount of experimental data will help us understand not only these diseases better but also immunity against viruses in general.